iGo On A Cruise
by GirlWithTheFace
Summary: When the iCarly team is invited to attend a 5 week cruise on a ship advertised to be the biggest on the planet, everything seemed perfect. Romance and new friendships blossomed, but not everything was as it should be. That's when it hit, and it hit hard.
1. Surprise!

**A/N: Obviously, I don't own iCarly. This is my first fan fiction I've ever written, so I hope you enjoy it!**

It was a strangely uneventful day at the Bushwell Plaza on June 11th, 2010. The Seattle air was warm and dry, so warm the heat was almost unbearable. Carly and Freddie had been taking shelter in Spencer's air conditioned apartment watching a new episode of Celebrities Underwater. Carly and Freddie both simultaneously sighed as David Schwimmer yet again passed out after holding his breath way too long in a hot tub, it had become so routine that nobody had really reacted anymore. At that moment Carly seemed to have lost interest in the show and she walked towards the apartment door, to which she let out a girlish squeal as Sam barged through it. _Now things would get interesting_, Freddie thought.

"Hey Carls, hey Fredalina." Sam said confidently as she walked towards the Shay's kitchen, obviously on the hunt for some ham. She knew every Friday that Spencer restocked on meat for the upcoming week, Freddie thought. He had scheduled regular meat pick-ups ever since the Summer had started. He knew since Sam would be on the roam more she'd definitely need some more meat to fit her desires. Not that any of the teens would blame him, she did have a ravenous appetite. Suddenly, Sam spoke up and broke his chain of thought. "So, are we going to go up and rehearse for the next iCarly or what? I missed another episode of Hamlovers Haven for this."

"Yeah, I was just going to go get Spencer. We need him for the new Baby Spencer bit." Carly said. "You have no idea how hard it was to get him to do this, ever since we made him spit creamed fish on Candice he's been pretty reluctant to step into his baby persona. I finally made him do it by-" Carly was cut off by another person entering her apartment door. The trio of teenagers immediately recognized Gibby, their chubby not-so-normal friend walk through the door and yell something about being ready to tackle the next episode.

"Oh, you better be ready. What size bra do you wear, Gibson?" Sam asked sternly. Gibby hesitated, and decided it was time to abort. Sam must have sensed he was going to make a run for it, because she grabbed him and pushed him into the elevator, pressing the button and running up the stairs. Carly and Freddie shrugged and quickly followed her up to the iCarly studio, turning on the lights and booting up Freddie's laptop. "In 5, 4, 3, 2..."

"And, we're clear!" Freddie said as he shut off his camera and computer. "You guys did great, that bit with the chili and the chicken mask was hilarious."

"I have to say…a bra doesn't feel that ba-" Gibby was immediately cut off by Carly and Freddie who both gave him strange looks and Sam who tried not to laugh. They all walked downstairs, only to find Spencer screaming like a little girl in delight and jumping around the kitchen. "Spencer, what is going _on_?" Carly said while laughing and jogging up to him. Spencer stopped for a minute and tried to catch his breath, and then uttered out the words that would change their lives forever.

"Spit it out, Spencer!" Sam said and ran up to him. Gibby grinned in suspense as Spencer held up one large, white envelope with a golden design running across the sides of it. "We're going on a 6 week cruise! iCarly's been nominated for an award for best webshow in the U.S. and they're having the awards show _on_ the cruise ship!"

"Oh my gosh, no way!" Carly screamed out and hugged all the people in the room at once. Spencer resumed bouncing around the kitchen and yelling out screams of joy. Freddie hugged Carly and Sam (and reluctantly, Gibby). They all started talking at once about what they should pack and when they were leaving, then they looked at Spencer expecting some answers.

"We leave in 3 days, on Monday! The ship's called the SS Titanium and they say it's the longest ship in existence! They're taking her on her maiden voyage and a ton of famous people are going to be there! The cruise lasts 5 weeks! They even gave us one extra ticket!" Spencer said through deep breaths. Freddie and Carly both had a grin that seemed to stretch all the way across their faces while Sam kept a small smile and muttered something about celebrities being overrated.

"Wait, what about the extra ticket? Who are we going to take?" Carly asked.

"We could take Freddie's mom" Spencer suggested reluctantly.

"Okay, no WAY am I going to spend 5 weeks with Freddork's psycho mom." Sam stated in disgust.

"What about Gibby? He's contributed lots to our show." Freddie said to Carly.

"Ooh, that's a great idea! Gibby, come here! This is going to be so much fun!"

Freddie couldn't help but stretch his smile even wider when he saw how happy Carly and Sam were. He couldn't wait to spend 5 weeks on a cruise next to the beautiful sea with his two best friends. He thought it might also be a good place for him to make another move on Carly. She was so beautiful to him, with her long, wavy locks of silky black hair. Although today she wasn't wearing as much makeup as usual, he loved the natural look it gave her. The way the blazing hot Seattle sun made her hair glow made her seem like an angel, and her laugh seemed like music to his ears.

"Uh, Fredalupe?" Sam said and elbowed him in the side. "Stop staring at Carly's ass and lets go finish up for the iCarly. We still have to think of something to attach Miss Briggs head onto." Freddie sighed and started to walk up the stairs with Sam, while Carly giggled from the bottom of the stairs with Spencer and Gibby.


	2. It's A Date

**A/N: I still don't own iCarly. I hope you guys enjoyed my first chapter, and I promise this one will be a little more interesting. It's all a matter of suspense though, it gets better as it moves on! **

Freddie's POV

It was the night before we left for the cruise, and I was totally pumped. All of us (excluding Sam, of course) had all of our bags packed and would be at the boarding dock tomorrow by 8:00 in the morning. Gibby and Spencer were in the kitchen making spaghetti tacos for dinner, and after dinner we were all going to go to bed and get some well-needed rest. For now, though, Carly, Sam, and I were sitting on the couch watching an episode of Girly Cow.

"Man, I've gotta go." Sam said, obviously saddened to leave before dinner. "My mom claims she wants me to go home so I can help her give Frothy his pills, but she probably wants to model some bikini in front of me again."

After Carly and I said goodbye, I thought relieved when Sam had finally left. All night she had been unusually irritable, as if something had been bothering her. When I had tried to ask her what was wrong she spat back at me with some remark about minding my own business. I tried to piece together what was wrong with her, but I eventually gave up after realizing how unpredictable she really was. I was glad when Carly finally broke the silence.

"Wow, I can't believe we were nominated for _another_ award. Especially on a cruise, this is just like…amazing." she said, while half-way staring at the television and half-way staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah, I'm just glad to finally get away from my mom for a little while. The cruise parts nice too, though."

"This is the first time I've ever been on a real cruise. I've been on a couple of big boats with my dad a few times, but never on something like this." Carly said, lost in thought.

"Neither have I. I think it'll be fun, though."

"Yeah, I can't wait. I'm surprised your mom actually let you go."

"It took a lot to finally get her to break, but I knew she would eventually. I knew I couldn't try to move out again, so I just cut all communication off with her and she nearly had a nervous breakdown. It worked out, though."

"Well, I'm glad. She treats you like you're a little baby and you're not."

"I know that, it's just a bad habit of hers. She'll get over it soon…I hope."

After that, there was a long silence. We turned our attention back to the re-run of Girly Cow on TV while Spencer and Gibby finished up the tacos in the kitchen, oblivious to our previous conversation. Just when I could see that they were almost ready to call us for dinner, I decided to try my luck one last time before we left. I usually hesitated before making another advance on Carly, but I figured now that I've done it so many times it wouldn't really make a difference.

"So, uh, Carly, maybe sometime next week on the cruise we could go have dinner or something. I hear the ship's got tons of restaurants all over it." I quickly thought and decided it was best not to push my luck this far, not yet. "Just as friends, you know. Minus the blonde headed demon. Just us."

"You know…that'd be nice. I'd love to."

I couldn't believe my luck. I might actually have a chance with her this time! I knew when her lips curled upwards in that lighthearted grin and her eyes gave off that tiny little sparkle that she wasn't joking around. It was a date. Well, just as friends, I reminded myself.

"Great! I'll find a restaurant tomorrow when we get on the ship, and maybe we could do it the next day?"

"Awesome, that sounds great." She once again gave that uplifting grin and it had this strange effect of making me smile too. I thought about saying something else, but before I could Spencer called us up to the dinner table. We all laughed and talked during dinner and in about an hour we all went back to our respective houses and apartments and went to sleep. Tomorrow was the big day, and tonight it just got a lot better. SS Titanium, here I come.


	3. Boarding Day

**A/N: Finally, it's time for the cruise! As always, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter and the ones that will follow. I'd also like to thank the readers who posted some reviews for this story, they're always appreciated! I also still don't own iCarly, although that goes without saying. Now, without further ado, Chapter 3.**

Sam's POV

I woke up that morning at my house in a daze, ever since the Summer started I hadn't woken up before noon. It took me a few minutes to finally realize what day it was and where I would soon be. As soon as I remembered that today is the day me and my best friends would board one of the largest and most luxurious ships in history, I immediately got excited. I glanced at my clock, it said 6:05. I got out of bed and took a short shower, then got dressed, a little nicer than I usually would. I knew that since I was going to be one of the passengers on the first voyage of the Titanium that I should look decent. I put on the dress I wore when I tried to get Gibby to go to the Girl's Choice dance with me and some black shoes. Then I turned to the empty suitcase next to my bed.

My eyes widened when I saw that I hadn't packed yet. I ran to my suitcase (even though it was only a few feet away) and nearly ripped it open. I glanced around my room and my closet and quickly saw stuff I would bring. I figured I would only pack the essentials. I took some changes of clothes, my PearPhone, my PearPod, a hairbrush, some ribs and smoked ham in a large plastic bag, and over 10 packs of fat cakes. I figured the other girlish essentials I needed to make myself not look like a hobo could easily be snatched from Carly aboard the ship. She usually brought at least 5 suitcases with her packed to the rim when she went anywhere. She's such a girl.

I said goodbye to my mom and flashed her a smile that said "I'd love to talk to you about your new bikini but I've got to go now", and ran out the door. I grabbed a taxi and headed over to the Bushwell Plaza. I ran through the lobby and ignored Lewbert screaming at me for running on his newly mopped floor and got in the elevator, then pressed the button to go to straight to Carly's floor. I waited impatiently for the elevator to open again. I glanced at my PearPhone and saw it was 7:15. We leave in less than an hour, I need to get up there now!

Just as I was about to glance at my phone again the doors opened, and I saw Freddie, Carly, and Spencer all running around the apartment frantically gathering bags and making sure everything was ready for them to go. Spencer heard the elevator door open and he gave me a look that said "where the hell have you been?".

"Finally, Sam's here!" Carly said and gestured towards the elevator with his thumb. Freddie sighed in relief and everyone spoke to me at once about never being on time and causing them anxiety. I couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Don't get your antibacterial undies in a bunch, Fredweird. I'm here, aren't I?" I said to him. I dropped my luggage by the couch and headed over to the kitchen before he could reply. I sighed when I saw that I had missed breakfast and grabbed some Peppy Cola and a chunk of ham from the fridge. I stuck the ham in my mouth while I opened the can of soda and walked over to the couch and jumped down. Freddie had walked back over to his apartment, probably to say his final goodbyes to his psychopathic mom, and Carly and Spencer were upstairs probably making sure all the lights were off or the cat in their wall hadn't escaped through the vent again.

As I finished up the ham and threw the soda can across the room, Freddie came back in and locked the door behind him. I don't blame him, I wouldn't want any chance of his mom following me. Before I could say anything to him, he ran upstairs to find Carly. I sighed and leaned my head back on the couch. I had always been second best to Carly to him. I'd been the go-to chick if you wanted to beat up the football team, and Carly had been the girly princess who could whisk any boy off his feet. Almost every time I was with Freddie we were arguing or mad at eachother. Ever since I shared my first kiss with him on that fire escape, I thought it might stop. Fate had different plans, though. It was so hard to change from hatred to being best friends that we just didn't try. Deep down, I knew he must have thought more of me than being the demon who tormented him every second of his life. I knew he had to. Right?

My chain of thought was broken when Freddie once again appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He was looking at me strangely because he must have saw me looking off into space, so I looked at him sternly and tried to think of something to say.

"What is it, Dipthong?"

"Sam, could we please put the insults aside and just talk for 2 minutes without ripping eachothers throats out?" Freddie said and sat down on the couch next to me.

I wanted nothing more than to gaze into his deep, chocolate brown eyes and laugh and talk together like we were best friends, but I knew it would only make things worse and shrugged out a "sure".

"Look...I don't think this cruise will be any fun for either of us if we're constantly arguing and calling eachother stupid names." he said, and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Nuh uh, making you miserable is my hobby." I said with a devious smile and pushed his hand off my shoulder.

"Please, just stop talking and let me finish. I was wondering if we could just try to get along and act decent towards eachother for these next 5 weeks so both of us can just have fun."

I looked at him straight in the eyes for about 10 seconds and thought about what he had said. What was the point of being nice to eachother for once if we knew it was all pretend? Then again, it might change things for the better.

"I...that would be nice." I said. I felt just as vulnerable and unprepared as I had when we were about to kiss on the fire escape. I usually had some witty response to bring him down every time we had one of these serious conversations, but this time I agreed with everything he said and I wouldn't have it any other way. It wouldn't be so bad to be civil, it might actually be nice. Just for this time.

"Thanks, I'll play my part as long as you play yours." he said and smiled at me. Just as I was about to say something else, Carly and Spencer ran down the stairs and grabbed their luggage. I looked at my phone and gasped when the clock said 7:45.

"Come on, guys, let's go! Is everyone ready?" Carly said. Spencer ran around and turned off the kitchen and living room lights.

"Yeah, Sam and I are ready to go." Freddie said and grabbed his bags. Just as I was about to reach for mine, he reached out and grabbed it for me. I was about to snatch it back, but he walked over to the elevator and pushed them in. We all piled inside and went down to the lobby (much to Lewbert's dismay). We got in a cab and the driver started to drive towards the docks. It was finally boarding time!

**A/N: Conflicting emotions, huh? Is Freddie falling for Sam? Or is he just being nice? R&R, please! Next chapter we'll finally get to the ship, I promise! Also, I thought it was funny because before I proofread and added stuff to this chapter it had 1,337 words. What are the odds?**


	4. All Aboard!

**A/N: Alright, it's time to finally go on the ship. Things will only get better from here! As always, thanks for the reviews. I love reading them! Still don't own iCarly, of course.**

Carly's POV

Sam, Freddie, and I all piled together in the back seat of the taxi while Spencer sat in front with the driver. I checked my phone, smiling when I saw my wallpaper of all three of us holding up cupcakes and making weird faces. I panicked when I saw that it was nearly 7:50. I wondered if the ship would leave before we got there. I whined impatiently and was about to say something when I could see the ocean in front of us. We were going to make it!

"Okay, there's a parking lot. Hurry, stop there!" I heard Spencer say. The cab driver quickly swerved into a parking spot in a huge parking lot filled to the rim with all different kinds of cars. I looked around and saw a fancy old Jaguar with blue flames painted on the sides and a white Land Rover with the biggest tires I had ever seen. If the cars are all so classy here, I can't wait to see the people.

"Okay, let's go! Thanks for the ride!" Spencer said as he rushed out of the door and into the hot Seattle sun. We all grabbed our bags and ran towards the docks without paying for the cab, much to the drivers dismay. When we turned the corner we all saw something that made us stop dead in our tracks. Freddie dropped his bags and gazed up at the enormous sight in front of us and Sam slowly walked forward, mouth wide open in amazement.

Right in front of us laid the biggest sight we had ever seen. A freshly painted, pearly white, colossal structure was spread out over the shimmering ocean. It towered above all the shops and buildings in the area. The decks had multiple pools of all sizes and shapes and stringed lights and banners were strung from railing to railing. Every floor had hundreds of shining, clean windows lined in a perfect row next to each other. A small line of thick, grey smoke rose up from a large white smokestack towering above the back of the ship. We could see what looked like a million people gathered against the railing waving at friends and family on the docks.

"Is that our ship?" Freddie said, picking up his bags and walking next to Sam. Spencer nodded and pointed to the side of the ship. Sure enough, on the side of the ship the words SS Titanium were painted on the ship in blue cursive writing. I glanced at the time on my phone once more, it said 7:55. We had to move now!

"Come on guys, let's move!" I said as I ran past Freddie and Sam and up to the crowd of people surrounding the boarding docks. Spencer and my two friends caught up to me and we began pushing our way through the crowd, being met with rude remarks and shoves. The ship let out a loud bellowing sound that made the ground under us faintly shake. When we finally got up to the boarding gate, we showed the boarder our tickets and he marked us off on a list with a golden pen. We were quickly ushered into the ship behind an elderly man and woman who seemed just as amazed as we were. We were finally aboard the ship.

All around us were people laughing and talking on red upholstered chairs and expensive looking couches. It looked like some sort of lobby, there were 3 uniformed crew members behind a granite desk towards the front of the room giving people directions and picking up phones that seemed to ring every 10 seconds. I looked at Freddie, Sam, and Spencer and saw they were just as surprised as I was.

The boarder had given Spencer a large envelope similar to the one our invitation had arrived in. In it were four cards and when we were all sitting down on one of the couches he passed them out to all of us. They seemed to be some sort of ID card, and Spencer explained we would need to keep these with us at all times to have access to the ships many shops, restaurants, and other amenities.

"So, what rooms are we staying in? Mama needs her beauty sleep." Sam said, and threw the card into her suitcase.

"Oh, right! Those should be somewhere on the back of the cards." Spencer said, flipping his over and quickly scanning it. While doing this, the envelope fell off of his lap and a brochure fell out of it. Spencer picked it up.

"Oh, here we go. We're in Suite 395-D. It's almost on the top floor!" Spencer said and shoved the brochure back in the envelope. Freddie, Sam, and I smiled when we heard the word suite and heard it would be on the top floor.

"Well, shall we proceed?" Freddie said.

"That we shall! To the almost-top floor!" Spencer said and led the way through the crowded hallways. Everyone seemed to be trying to find their rooms or a bathroom and we had to push our way through the crowd to get to an elevator. As the door opened, a huge wave of people rushed out and pushed past us. Spencer once again dropped the envelope, and another card fell out. I picked it up before anyone could step on it and looked at the name in big, bold lettering at the top.

"Oh my god…"

"What is it, Carls?" Sam said. Freddie looked over my shoulder at the card and his eyes widened. Sam looked over my other shoulder and bit her lip.

"Spencer, we forgot Gibby!" we all yelled at the same time.


	5. A Warm Welcoming

**A/N: Hey, readers! Sorry I haven't been getting this chapter out sooner, I've joined an awesome avatar site and it kind of got me sidetracked. But, I finally sacrificed a few hours of sleep to bring you this chapter! As usual, I don't own iCarly. Seriously, why do we even put that in here? It's so blatantly obvious. Please keep on reviewing and reading, I love reviews!**

Gibby's POV (oh, poor Gibby!)

That morning, I had woke up at 7:35, and I hadn't even packed yet. I didn't even bother to take a shower (which wasn't very unusual for me, anyways) and threw about 3 shirts and a couple pairs of pants into my suitcase and grabbed my cheap phone and wallet on the way out. My mom and I had already said goodbye the night before, and I would really miss her. We were both crying our eyes out on the couch, I had never been away from home for more than 3 days. I figured I had eventually violently sobbed myself to sleep, because I woke up in an odd position on our couch with my mom sprawled out on the floor in front of me.

While I threw my clothes in my suitcase, I thought about Sam. I figured she was probably in the same position I was, waking up late and hurriedly packing before heading out the door. I didn't know why I had thought of her, my mind had never wandered to her when I was late to school or for a bunch of tests. I decided to shrug it off. Speaking of shrugging things off, I worried a little when Carly hadn't called me and asked me why I was running late. I knew they couldn't have forgot about me, so I figured they were running just as late as I was.

By the time I had finally got a taxi's attention, it was 7:56. I decided to meet the rest of the guys at the boarding dock, so I told the driver to head to where the Titanium was boarding. He looked really surprised when I told him I was heading for the Titanium, but I figured it was because it would be really crowded. I got really nervous the next time I checked my phone, I saw it was already 8:17. We were almost at the docks, and that's when I heard an extremely loud, bellowing horn. I yelled at the driver to please hurry up because I knew that meant the ship would soon be leaving. He dropped me off half a block away from the docks, so I grabbed my luggage and ran out of the cab.

The streets were unusually crowded, and I had to bump past people and constantly apologize every few seconds. The fact that I was carrying around about 3 suitcases didn't make it any better, and soon I was out of breath. I forced myself to keep going, and after a few minutes of running and bumping into tourists I rounded a corner and saw the biggest boat I had ever seen in my life. I was facing it head on, and I saw an enormous, wide deck and multi-colored, bright banners hung everywhere. Above the deck I could see the captains quarters and what looked like the crew's bridge. This boat is way bigger than the one Spencer had, I thought.

That's when I saw that there were no more people boarding the ship, only onlookers taking pictures and waving at people onboard. The crew had forced them all to go back behind some flimsy looking gates, I guess so people wouldn't try to sneak on, and I knew they wouldn't believe I was supposed to be on there without a ticket. I looked around for Carly, Sam, Freddie, or Spencer without any luck and decided to try and talk my way in.

I walked up to the crew member boarding people on the ship and decided to be completely honest. I thought of a cheesy way to start the conversation, and I figured I would use what I used at the Groovy Smoothie to make new friends when Carly, Sam, and Freddie were busy.

"Hey, uh…you work here?"

"…Yes, I do. Can I help you?" the crew member said.

"Look, I know I'm kinda…um, late, but I'm supposed to be on that ship. My friends on board are holding my ticket."

The crew member shifted his eyes and glanced at a police offer who was standing nearby and gestured for him to come over. I knew this couldn't be good.

"This boy here claims he's supposed to be onboard the ship and that his friends are onboard and have his ticket." the crew member said, "and he just arrived here now, 20 minutes late."

"What's your friends names, son?" the cop said.

"I think the tickets would be under Spencer Shay. They're here for the awards ceremony, they do a show called iCarly."

"So, you're telling me your friends with Carly Shay?" the crew man said to me and laughed under his breath.

"Yeah, my names Gibby Gibson. I'm on their show all the time."

"Riiiight, I think we'd recognize you. Please, just step off to the-"

I began to panic, the ship was probably going to set sail or start it's engines or whatever you call it in a matter of minutes and these two guys were going to make me miss it. I frantically thought of something to retaliate with, and quickly spoke when I saw the cop was opening his mouth to say something else.

"NO! You have to listen to me! If I could just get on the ship for 5 minutes I could find them and they'd give you my ticket and tell you I'm supposed to be on there and we could all live happily ever after!"

The crew member once again glanced over to the cop and nodded to him, then gestured with his head towards me. The cop walked closer to me and looked me straight in the eye.

"Son, I'm going to ask you one time to please step off to the side with the other spectators." the cop said to me and put his hand on his belt, in an effort to intimidate me. Unfortunately for them, I don't give up easily. Talking wasn't working, though.

"Well…officer, please, just- HOLY CHIZZ NUTS! That guy was just shot!" I yelled and pointed towards the crowd. When the crewman and the cop both turned their backs and took a few steps towards the crowd, I ran up the ramp that led up to the ship and made a dive to get in the door. Just as I was about to get in and blend in the crowd the cop grabbed my ankles and pulled me to the ground. I screamed out an array of words my mom would probably have an aneurysm hearing at the cop and tried kicking him away, but the crewman grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to get up.

Just as it looked like the cop was going to bite my head off, Freddie ran in front of the doorway leading into the gigantic ship. I had never been more happy to see him in my life.

"Guys, he's over here! Hurry!" he said.

Carly, Sam, and Spencer all ran out onto the ramp and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw I was being held up by a cop and restrained by a crew member. Carly's mouth fell open and she let out a confused stutter before speaking up. I noticed Sam was the only one wearing something decent, the rest of us were all dressed like tourists with sunglasses or oversized t-shirts. I smiled when I saw it was the same dress that she asked me out to the dance in.

"What are you _DOING_ to him? He's with us, let him go!" Carly said.

"Wait…he wasn't lying? You're with iCarly? I…I am _so_, s-sorry!" the crew member said, letting me go and pushing the cop to the side, almost into the water. He dusted off my clothes like someone would in a weird movie and patted me reassuringly on the shoulder.

"I had no idea…he was with you, and…you're with iCarly! We're all glad that you're here and…" the crew member began to stutter. He held his forehead in his hand and ushered us inside. "Just…please, enjoy your stay."

"Well, wasn't that a warm welcoming?" I said. I was immediately bombarded with questions of why I was so late and how I managed to be tackled by security, so I sat down and prepared for a long talk before heading to our rooms.


	6. New Beginnings

**A/N: Wow, been a while since I worked on this story. I have no excuse besides laziness, but I promise you that I'll try to do better. But, let's look on the bright side! We're finally on to the ship, and the real adventure is just about to start. FYI, I still don't own iCarly or any of these awesome characters.**

Freddie's POV

The last thing I remembered before everyone freaked out about losing Gibby was how Carly's face lit up when she learned how awesome this vacation would really be. Two suites nearly on the top floor, and an amazingly large ship with more things to do on it than in the whole city of Seattle. It seemed like nothing could ruin it. Then, Carly panicked, and we all realized that we had forgotten Gibby in all the excitement.

We all split up and ran in different directions at once. There were 3 boarding gates, one in the middle of the ship, one to the back, and one near the front. Carly and Sam raced to the one near the front, and Spencer ran to the one near the back. They hoped that they might find him in the sea of people outside that were waiting for the ship to take off, while I opted to stay here. I figured it might be a better idea to see if he was already on the ship first, so I scanned the crowd near the front desk.

I had only glanced outside of the boarding door when I saw him being tackled by an overweight cop and held up by a crewman with one of the hairiest mustaches I had ever seen. Almost on queue Carly, Sam, and Spencer showed up to help me pry Gibby away from them, and we threw a slew of questions at him that went on for about 10 minutes. Gibby had taken everything casually, as if being tackled by hairy-faced cruise workers and fat cops was a routine thing for him. Then, the loud sound of the ships bellowing horn once again filled the air, and the boarding doors were closed and shut tight. _Here we go_, I thought.

"Come on, kiddos, let's go to the deck! The ship's leaving port!" Spencer said, and we dropped our suitcases on a luggage cart and ran for an elevator. When we got in, we saw the elevator (and the elevator shaft, for that matter) was made almost entirely of glass. As we went up floor by floor, we saw an array of shops and restauraunts. As the floors got higher, we saw a concert stage, a pool that looked bigger than a lake, an arcade that seemed as big as a football field, and what even looked like a mall, complete with a food court and a movie theater. If that was all the stuff on one side of the ship (and probably not even all of it), I couldn't wait to see what was on the other sides.

After at least 5 minutes of ascending the gigantic ship, we finally reached a room on the top floor. It had more of those expensive looking couches we saw near the front desk, some lounging chairs, and a large, plasma screen TV. We assumed it was one of the many small lounges we had seen coming up. On one side of the room, we saw two, propped open, glass double doors that led outside to the deck. Rays of golden sunlight shone through the doors and illuminated the lounge much more than the large light fixture above it.

After taking a few more seconds to take in our surroundings, Sam spoke up. "Okay, it's a room. We got plenty of these things back home. Are we gonna go outside or what?"

"It's not every day you see a plasma screen bigger than a horse, Sam! Besides, this ship doesn't look like it can get out to sea very quickly." Carly said to her. It was true, the ship was the largest thing I had ever seen that could float. I didn't expect it to be floating in the middle of the ocean for a while, but boy, was I wrong. This hunk of metal seemed to be always one step ahead of us.

After Carly's comment, we all walked onto the deck and passed a regularly sized pool and a smoothie bar. We decided to watch the ship leave port near the stern of the ship. Carly waved to the crowd below for no apparent reason, and Sam looked over the edge of the stern to try and see if she could see the propellers. Spencer seemed much more interested in what was happening onboard, and watched as people were pushed into the pool by their friends and family and small children ran around and played tag. He was always a people-watching sort of guy. Gibby went up next to Sam, and I could see them begin to talk. Unfortunately, they were out of earshot, so I couldn't hear what they were saying.

Just as I was about to move next to Carly and strike up a conversation, the ship let out yet another booming sound from it's horn. The smoke that was once so slowly and rhythmically flowing out of the smokestack came out in greater amounts and turned a darker gray. I could hear a faint humming noise from far below us. I heard a loud popping noise from what I assumed was the smokestack and the sound of pressurized air being released. The ship slowly began to move, and the passengers and spectators from far below on the ground cheered.

"Oh my gosh, we're already moving?" Carly said. I looked at her with a half smile, half mouth opened in disbelief look. I glanced over at Sam to see her watching the ocean trail in white, foamy streaks behind us. We began to pick up speed, and the cheers from the crowd grew louder. Spencer threw up his arms and let out a long, high-pitched "WOOO!" and Carly and Sam let out a girlish squeal together. I joined Spencer and shouted out another drawn out "WOOO!". Gibby threw off his shirt and flailed it in the air. We began to move faster and faster out into the sea.

After about 5 minutes of random screams and cheers, the Seattle boarding port became smaller and smaller. The passengers on the deck slowly began to filter inside and gravitate towards the smoothie bar, and the smoke from the smokestacks flowed out more steadily and rhythmically than it had before. We spent at least 30 more minutes on the deck, watching the ocean shimmer and shine from the morning sun.

Behind us I could see the faint trail of smoke and the streaks of foamy, white water we had left behind. They both slowly disappeared as we went on, and soon new ones took their place. I then remembered we had yet to see our rooms or even took a walk around the ship to see what we could do these next 5 weeks. I decided to break the silence.

"So, are we going to keep staring at the water all day or do you guys want to go see our cuartos?" **(A/N: Random Spanish! For those of you who actually have to look up Spanish like me, it means rooms.)**

"Of course, what are we waiting for?" Carly said.

I walked besides Carly as we all walked down the deck, and into the lounge room which we came in. As we waited for the elevator, it all finally sunk in. We, of all people, had been selected to go on the maiden voyage of the biggest ship on the planet. In the next 5 weeks, we would be traveling to places I never thought I'd see in my life. It was a time for new beginnings, and I thought that I just _might_ take advantage of it.


End file.
